The cloud hovering over the virtual campus

The Virtual Campus has been around for about 20 years. It provides an online environment that mimics the processes and services of the physical campuses and classrooms. Its adoption is almost complete in countries where Internet access has become ubiquitous. For a time seemed like the innovation in education was happening in the Virtual Campus, but this is no more. Personal Learning Environments, Life Long Learning, MOOCS, Open Educational Resources, Mobile Apps, Gamification, Social Networks, free Cloud based services... al of the above and even more hint that not all the learning today is happening at school or in the Virtual Campus.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author’s final draft

Dispositius i serveis mòbils contra la fractura digital

La fractura digital reflexa la diferència que hi ha entre països, comunitats o persones en l'accés a les TIC. Per tant, la fractura digital divideix les persones en dos grups: els que tenen accés a les TIC i els que no en tenen. En general, hi ha grans diferències entre països rics i pobres en l'accés a les TIC. Només una tecnologia trenca aquesta tendència: els dispositius mòbils, concretament els telèfons mòbils. Segons l’informe sobre la Societat de la Informació que publica la Unió Internacional de Telecomunicacions (Internacional Telecommunication Union o ITU), els països pobres estan experimentant des de fa uns anys un important creixement en l’us dels telèfons mòbils. Segons la ITU: "It is a technology that has permeated more widely than any other into new areas, and we must examine how we can utilize this technology going forward, to help narrow the digital divide." Per tant, els dispositius mòbils són una de les tecnologies que tenen gran potencial per lluitar contra la fractura digital i per aconseguir el desenvolupament sostenible. Però, per què s’han estès més ràpidament que altres tecnologies, els telèfons mòbils?. Hi ha diversos factors que hi han contribuït. Un dels més importants és el cost relativament baix dels terminals mòbils. A la majoria de països del món, és possible aconseguir un telèfon mòbil per un preu relativament baix, que pot oscil.lar al voltant dels 40$. Moltes vegades aquest cost és excediu per una sola persona, pel que membres d’una família o d’una comunitat es veuen obligats a compartir un telèfon mòbil. També hi ha tot un mercat de segona ma que permet aconseguir telèfons mòbils a preus més baixos. Altres factors que han ajudat a la difusió dels telèfons mòbils també seran analitzats. Als països rics, no ens plantegem, compartir el telèfon mòbil amb una altra persona. El telèfon mòbil és un aparell personal. Però, què passa quan la gent es veu obligada a compartir un objecte que ha sigut dissenyat per l’us personal?. Quins són els usos que se'n fan dels telèfons mòbils als països pobres?. En aquesta contribució s’analitzaran algunes pràctiques que es fan dels telèfons mòbils als països pobres, com per exemple, l’enviament de diners a un familiar que es troba lluny o el servei de recàrrega de la bateria dels terminals mòbils ambulants. La difusió dels telèfons mòbils als països pobres també ha permès l’aparició de serveis oferts a través de dispositius mòbils. Entre aquests serveis, destaquen el que es coneix com mobile-banking, el mobile-health i el mobile-learning. L’aparició d’aquests serveis és una mostra de la contribució dels dispositius mòbils per lluitar contra la fractura digital a indrets on aquests serveis no es podrien oferir a través d’altres tecnologies. La difusió d’aquests serveis pot ser una contribució important pel desenvolupament sostenible. En aquesta contribució ens centrarem en el mobile learning. Analitzarem les iniciatives en el camp del mobile learning realitzades als països pobres i com pot contribuir el mobile learning per lluitar contra la fractura digital.Peer Reviewe

Debates on tech-related moral dilemas usign ethical theories to teach engineering ethics

A significant number of universities where engineering is taught acknowledge the influence on society and the environment of the scientific and technological practice, as well as the ethical problems it presents, and the need to provide their students with courses covering this as a subject. The accelerated pace of innovation in these fields amplifies the issue. Computer Engineering schools are no exception. So, the IEEE/ACM Computer Science Curriculum 2013, identifies social issues and professional practice as key knowledge areas that computer undergraduate students must learn. Students should be knowledgeable about the interplay of ethical issues, technical problems, and aesthetic values that play an important part in the development of computing systems. The authors have taught for many years an optional course about the social, and environmental aspects of ICT as well as ethics. In this paper, the authors propose an approach to study ethics in Computer engineering schools. The approach consists in providing students with general ethic frameworks to reason about moral dilemmas as well as providing the basics of deontology. The lessons are complemented with case studies where technology is a key factor. Students are assigned roles to work on the cases and in the end, a discussion is done in the classroom. After the lessons, the authors have observed that students are able to understand and use the tools provided by the teachers to reason about moral dilemmas.Peer ReviewedObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::4 - Educació de QualitatPostprint (published version

Coping with and addressing the risks of children TV and online devices usage: A review and proposal of guidelines for parents

Children start to be heavy users of media and connected devices as young as 5 years old. This widespread change of habits, while it is regarded as an opportunity for enhanced learning and acquisition of digital literacy, also raises concerns about the impact that is having and may have in the near future of children's health, development and exposure to risks. Parents have to cope with these concerns and address these risks as part of their duties. “Parental Mediation" is the management of the relation of children with media and online devices. Parental mediation is a form of socialization as parents influence their children’s behaviors and attitudes related to technology. This paper analyzes the risks and implications of the growing exposure of children to tech, goes through a number of studies on parental mediation, and proposes a set of guidelines for parental mediation.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Integration of M-learning and LMS: a sustainability approach

Mobile phones are widely used in both rich and poor countries, unlike what happens with other ICTs. The expansion of mobile telephony in poor countries presents an opportunity to fight against digital divide. In the latter countries, mobile phones are used to get information and services about agriculture, health, and education among other areas. Specifically in the area of education there are many who think that mobile phones are a useful tool to help achieve universal primary education, one of the Millennium Development Goals proposed by the United Nations. There are many educational experiences with mobile phones for development. But most of these experiences have serious limitations that affect their long-term sustainability. In this line, the current paper provides a set of guidelines to define more sustainable and long-term viable mobile-learning projects and presents its applications to a m-learning project: the Moodbile project.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Segur-Dron: cas d’estudi mètode PESTLE

2022/20231r quadrimestr

Aplicación de metodologías activas para mejorar el aprendizaje y reducir el absentismo en el bloque de Historia de la Informática en un curso de grado

En una asignatura optativa de grado en ingeniería informática en el bloque temático de historia de la informática, se detectó una disminución de interés y atención y un aumento del absentismo en las clases entre los estudiantes. Por ello, se decidió introducir un cambio en la metodología didáctica de este bloque temático, tal como se había hecho en otras partes de la asignatura previamente. El cambio consiste en introducir metodologías activas, introduciendo entre otras prácticas la clase invertida para trabajar los temas de historia de la informática. Se pone a disposición de los estudiantes un video antes de cada sesión presencial de historia. Los estudiantes, organizados en equipos pequeños, deberán buscar información adicional para tratar en más profundidad un personaje, tema o innovación determinado que aparece en el video. En cada sesión presencial se harán presentaciones breves por parte de cada equipo, seguidas de explicaciones complementarias del profesorado y, finalmente, un breve test individual sobre los temas tratados. Después de una edición, los resultados y encuestas realizadas a los estudiantes sugieren que el cambio ha producido mejoras significativas en la atención, participación, asistencia a las clases y aprendizaje del tema.In an optional degree course in computer engineering on the computer history themed block, a decline in interest and attention and an increase in absenteeism among students was detected. Therefore, a change in the teaching methodology for this themed block was decided upon, as had been done previously for other blocks. The change consists of introducing active methodologies, including, among other practices, the flipped classroom approach to work on the computer history topics. A video is made available to the students before each in-person session on computer history. The students, organized into small teams, will have to find additional information to delve deeper into a specific character, topic, or innovation mentioned in the video. During each in-person session, brief presentations will be made by each team, followed by complementary explanations by the teaching staff and, finally, a brief individual test on the topics covered. After one edition, the results and surveys of the students suggest that the change has produced significant improvements in attention, participation, attendance in class and learning of the topic.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Applying web services to define open learning environments

Evolution of learning processes is almost always linked to social changes and/or technological changes. One of those processes is eLearning, which is involved in the changes brought about by trends 2.0. This new tendencies consider the user, socialization and collaboration as the main important elements and this must be considered also in eLearning contexts. But today learning environments do not facilitate this approach. They are focused on the institutions or courses, not in the student as a key element of the learning process, as well not always provide elements of socialization and collaboration. In order to avoid these drawbacks, and by using service oriented architectures over learning management systems, new elearning environments could be defined. This paper will propose an architecture that would enable learning platforms evolve in that direction.Postprint (published version

Privacy and e-learning: a pending task

Most educational software programs use and gather personal information and metadata from students. Additionally, most of the educational software programs are no longer operated by the learning institutions but are run by third-party agencies. This means that in the decade since 2020, information about students is stored and handled outside premises and control of learning institutions. The personal information about students and their activity while they interact with learning management systems and online learning tools is increasingly in custody of cloud computing platforms, software-as-a-service providers, and learning tool vendors. There is an increasing will to use all the data and metadata from the activity of the students for research, to develop education management strategies, pedagogy approaches, and develop behavior control tools or learning tools informed by behavior analysis from learning analytics. Many times, these studies lack the ethical and moral perspective. In addition, there is an increasing number of cases in which this information has leaked or has been used in a shady way. Additionally, this information will be around for a long time, tied to the future digital profiles of the students whose data has been leaked. This paper hypothesizes that there has been an ongoing process of technological evolution that leads to a loss of control over personal information, which makes it even more difficult to protect user confidentiality and ensuring privacy, that data surveillance has entered the world of education, and that the current legal frameworks are not enough to really protect the student’s personal information. The paper analyzes how this situation came to pass, and why this is wrong. We conclude with some proposals to address it from its different root dimensions: technical, cultural, legal, and organizational.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

GDPR security and confidentiality compliance in LMS' a problem analysis and engineering proposal

We have studied the main Learning Management Systems (LMSs) to comprehend how personal data is processed and stored. We found that all the users' personal information, activity, and logs are stored unencrypted on the server filesystem and databases. A user with access to such resources may have full access to all the personal information and metainformation stored. Therefore, the LMSs are very vulnerable to information leaks in front of targeted hacker attacks due to weak GDPR compliance. In this paper, we analyze this problem from a technical and operational perspective for the open-source market leader LMS Moodle, and we propose a solution and a prototype of implementation.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft